Susan
by AbnegationStation
Summary: Story of the first book in Divergent from Susan Black's POV. May change some things from book.
1. The Walk

(This is Divergent told through Susan Black's eyes. This is my first fanfic so if theirs any problems I'm really sorry. All things related to Divergent are owned by Veronica Roth, not me.)

I slowly placed my shoes on, grunting with the strain it put upon my feet. I looked down at my shoes fleetingly, they were a light gray, a hint of washover white. I tied my laces quickly, I did not want to make Robert late for school. My mothers dissaproving eyes would haunt me forever. I slowly walked down the stairs, stumbling a little at the bottom, I had never been very graceful. I clutched the banister, my knuckles going white with the strain.

Robert clumsily went down the hall, picked up his schoolbag and looked at me '"Well, hurry up then" he said, and with that he walked out the house and down the street. I saw him walk on, and I took the time to look around, the houses, so simple yet, homely, the grass that was a fading yellow and the cracked pavements that signified we were almost at the Factionless part of town.

I took a deep breath and walked on, the pavement made scraping sounds as I walked, it could give way any moment. I hurried through, the Factionless scared me, my father said that it was selfesh of me to only think of myself in situations like these, but I cannot help it.

I saw Roberts gray bag bobbing ahead of my in the distance, as I watched I saw, surprisingly, that Robert had refuse to give up his side of the pavement when someone else needed it. I placed this to the back of my mind, Robert had never been the most selfless person in the world, nevermind on a day like today.

The Aptitude Test. Althought I knew I had nothing to worry about, It still sent a shiver through my spine. But, I knew where I belong, I looked down at my feet, the rhymic slap of them hitting the pavement seemed to make me more clearheaded. I kicked myself inwardly, I was absorbed in myself, I told myself not to be so absorbed, the Abnegation believed selfishness was the reason society collapsed. I am reminded of this every day, my father tells me before I go to school, the Abnegation Faction motto is almost encrypted into my head.

I looked up, I'm at school, I shuffle through the front door and the hallways before finally reached my first class.

The classes seemed to wizz by before, by lunchtime, it's time. I set down with several other Abnegation, soon after Beatrice and Caleb Prior shuffle to join our table. It seems as if Robert is not here yet, I sit down with my arms crossed, looking at the table. Soon enough, he arrives and takes a seat next to Beatrice. An Abnegation volunteer called Joe calls out several names, two from each Faction, I only recognize the two from out Faction; Andrew and Mary. They walk out and the rest of my table sits in silence, waiting, then my name and Beatrice's is called. I try to smile reassuringly at her as I walk in.

A Erudite man with thick glasses and a blue shirt sits on a chair at a desk. He looks at me, sternly and gestures me over to a chair, I sit down in it. The Simulation Machine sits next to me. The Machine is big and it has little cups underneath it. He takes a cup of the serum and gives it to me ''Drink up' he says, and my last thought is that it sounded rather sinister.


	2. The Aptitude Test

In a blink of an eye, I am back in the school cafeteria. A lady sit's in front of me, with a knife and a cheese infront of her. She screams at me to choose, and I lean back, repulsed by her breath. I look from the knife to the cheese and slowly take the hunk of cheese, the lady smiles at me and in a millisecond she is gone.

Then, I feel aware of another presense in the room, I turn around and a big dog bares it's teeth at me. It slowly pads towards me, it's eyes are like endless pits. As it gets closer my hands grips the cheese tightly, it felt so real, the grease of the cheese and the sweat beading against my head. I throw the cheese on the ground and the dog runs after it and starts to chew. I smile to myself, danger averted. When the dog looks up it's eyes have lost it's endless' pit feel and are changed with a placid and obedient look upon it's face. It edges towards me and I reach my arm out towards it, it's head nudges against my hand and I pat it, this was one of the first dog's I had ever seen. Our Faction thinks pets are un-practical and make us think more about it's needs then helping others, such as the Factionless.

After a minute of stroking, I hear a childish voice squeal in delight. I look at her, my mouth turning into a silent 'O', the dog bares it's teeth and pounces at her, I knock her out of the way and throw myself infront of the dog. My body hits the floor as the dog jumps onto me.

And in a second, the vision fades and it is replaced a man, a man on a bus. His hands, old and leathery waves a newspaper clipping in front of my face, I catch a glimpse of a man on it, I feel like I know him, but I dont know where. ''Do you know this man?'' he demands, towering over me. ''No, I dont think I do'' I say hesitantly, he must have picked up on the hesitation as he pleads with me ''Please, if you know it could really help me'' he looks directly into my eyes. My Abnegation-wired brain tells me to help him, he needs my help. So I do; I tell him I know of him, but I do not know anything else of him.

As quickly as the other simulations faded, this one does. I let out a sigh of relief, the Erudite man looks directly at me and moves towards his desk, ''Sit'' he directs me towards the chair. "As expected your results show you are Abnegation orientated". I smile meekly and nod."Do you have any questions, I am obligated to oblige in helping you with any queries you may have". I shake my head, and he sends me out.

Strangely Beatrice did not return from her room. I put this down to her being ill, this was proved when the instructor told us this information in his cool, yet, meek Abnegation way. The rest of the day went on uneventfuly, father didn't pick us up from school so me and Robert walked with Caleb untill Beatrice showed up. I must have looked perplex as she hastily made an excuse, me and Robert shared a look and nodded demurely.

As I went to bed I had no doubts in my mind, Abnegation was my Faction, Faction before blood. I slept peacefuly and with out trouble.


	3. The Choice

I wake without fear or trepidation, I have to keep my head cool. I smile to myself and take a quick glance in the mirror as I walk downstairs. I give my mother a suppressed smile and sat myself down at the table."Big day today" father announces as he walks in, I nod and look around the room for Robert, he's by the bread, slicing it, hand shaking. I raise my eyebrows before quickly stopping, curiosity is not an appetite to be sated I remind my self. He catched my eye, winks and grins, Robert never really got the idea of not showing emotions.

As me and Robert walk out the door, I turn to look at the house, yes, I am certain I will not leave this, this is peaceful, to others, yes, plain and boring but to me it has that sort of wholesome goodness. Robert and I wait for the bus, we exchanged ''Good morning'' and ''How are you?'' with the other Abnegation children before looking around, loosing ourself among the scenery. Their are limited seats on the bus so only around half of us sit down, Robert gets a seat but I am forced to stand and hold onto the railing above. Not that I mind of course. The Abnegation switch off and we all stand or sit mutely whilst the bus reaches a stop, the tires screeching across the uneven tarmac.

As we get someone next to me stumbles, I almost stumble with them but I regain my balance. I look around to see who it was, Beatrice, I cant really say I am surprised ''Hi'' I said and bowed my head to her."Hey" she replied with out so much as eye contact, she must be really nervous. We walk past a group of Candor smoking quickly and walk into the foyer. We take the stairs as the Amity want the lift, as we reach the top I take a deep breath, and walk in.

Our parents are all seated, I give mine a small smile before taking my place in the queue. Robert is on one side of me and on the other a Candor boy named Jacob Barlington. I close my eyes as the first name is called ''Lorna Yates'' an Amity, who, surprise surprise chose Amity. Then other names are called, Untill they reach Caleb."Caleb Prior" our leader calls out and Caleb steps forward, his blood falls in the waterfall. Me and several other Abnegation gasp, the traitor! How could he choose Erudite over his own flesh and blood? I break into whispers with Robert and Mary, the Abnegation girl to his left. The Erudite look to pleased with them selves, selfish, all they care about is fancy cars and new inventions and comforts. Then just I stop reeling from this, Beatrice chooses Dauntless, this is a bit less of a shock then Caleb as I knew she was disatisfied with our way of life, I hope she gets everything she wishes for and leaves everything she left behind. Soon it's Roberts, I nod to him and smile, I know he wont choose Abnegation but he will always be my brother. He chooses Amity and I smile inwardly.

And then. It's my turn. My body turns to ice, then as red hot as embers as I edge towards our leader, he nods at me and hands me a knife. I raise my arm above the Abnegation pebbles and slice only the tip of my fingers, I watch as a drop of my blood splashed onto one of the pebbles. I look at my parents and they smile and nod at me, proud.

After the other factions leave; First Dauntless then Candor then Erudite and Amity, the Abnegation stay to help clear up. With around seventy of us helping it doesn't take long, we are all cleaned up in seconds. Me and Mary help pack the chairs away and we hand them to a slightly older Abnegation who was an initiate last year, he smiles and says thanks and puts them all in a high pile.

Tomorrow we will start our community service and I secretly wonder what part of our city I will be assigned, I hope it's the Amity orchards or the Dauntless kitchens.

I hear they make great cake.


	4. Tasks

I wake up in my own apartment, we were assigned last night, mines small but it has a nice claustrophic feel to it. I make my bed and open my curtains before walking to the door and quietly walk towards the community hall, in the orderly Abnegation way (one line files one way whilst the other files the other). I can't wait to recieve my community service obligations. I arrive at the all and

walk in, several other Abnegation file in behind me and we asseble in alphabetical order. Their are only seven of us, and six of them where born into this Faction, people rarely choose Abnegation. I exchange pleasantries with the people next to me and we wait for our instructor, Mr. Eaton, to arrive.

As he walks in the initiates stop talking and devote their full attention to him. He calls us off on the register ''Mary, Susan, Jacobi (the transfer from Candor), Lena, Mark, Tobi and Jonathan". We all respond with ''Present". He proceeds to read out our assigned sector of the city, their are nine possible jobs, their are only seven of us so two sectors will go without initiates."Mary – Factionless Clothes Distribution, Susan – Dauntless Medic and Cook, Jacobi – Erudite technition, Lena – Amity Farms" the list went on."You will now board a mini-bus and will be taken to your sector where you will join your new colleagues. We nod and file out, as we board the mini-bus it started to rain, little drops of rain colour our gray clothes peppering it with black.

After the mini-bus dropps Mary off I ready myself to arrive at the Dauntless compound. As it screeched to a halt I jump off the mini-bus ungainly and almost fall onto the gravel. A couple of Dantless guards snigger, I look down at my feet. Around ten people in gray clothes – Abnegation and a couple in Dauntless red and black look at me, I smile hesitantly."Hello, if you would follow us and we will take you to the kitchens and get you started right away" the man who said it turns and started to walk. I follow him, trying to keep up with him and the others – Goodness, they walk so fast.

We walk past the new Dauntless initiates, they were shooting guns at targets, I look quickly at them, then divert my attention to the people in front. I find a point in their back and stare at it, loosing myself and my curiosity. We reach the kitchen and I get right to work, they hand me a tub of cake mix and tell me the instructions, basically I just have to mix it with milk and place it in the oven. This should be easy. I do as they say and lo-and-behold a cake smelling like a chocolate dream, I sniff and then stop, I am being self-obsessed. I take the cake out of the tin, loosing a couple of sides of the cake, and spill crumbs onto the floor. I look apprehensifly at the floor ''Dont worry, I doubt they'l even notice it'' said one of the Dauntless laughing. I nod to her and I slice the cake into slices, the slices are squint and I frown in concentration."Times up!" The head-cook yelled and we all stopped immdeiatly. Others carried through the food and plated it up.

After that I was hastened towards the nurses office, nothing interesting happened, so I just sat around sorting the medecine into the correct box.

Soon the mini-bus came to pick me up and it returned me to my apartment. I lay down, exhausted and fell asleep mind-boggelingly fast.


	5. A butter knife in the eye? Oh my!

The next couple of weeks drift by in my mind like a haze, I can almost remember nothing about them. Apart from the fact I had perfected the art of Dauntless cake making, I can now get it out of the tin without loosing any pieces of cake – I was very proud. I also helped out with a few minor injuries, placing iodine on wounds and at one point helping to place a dislocated arm back in it's socket.

I had begun to hear murmers of the rankings, I took no note of them as Beatrice was none of my concern, selfish as that may seem - she was no longer part of my Faction.

The first major operation we had was helping with an initiate who had somehow lodged a butter knife in his eye, I found it strange as it must have been done with tremendous force. The weeping girl by his bed didn't help with the treatment. Helen (one of the Dauntless nurses) carefuly removed the butter knife to prevent infection or more grevious bodily harm. Then I had to prepare the bandage that was to go around his eye, their was nothing else we could do, the Erudite would have to take care of him from here on.

The incident caused quite a stir in the Dauntless compound, I heard people muttering about it in the corridor as I passed, I started to spend less time in the Dauntless compound and more in the Abnegation. The rota had been shortened, we were going to start learning the basic rules of leadership – yet selflesness. Apparantly this was where most of the Abnegation initiates fail, although they are not kicked out they are merely presented with less meaningful jobs.

The Erudite had started to print papers pointing scorn at our Faction and several council members,

each of the Abnegation dealt with it in their own way, some like Mary and Lena tried to see it from the Erudite point of view – I tended to side quite a lot with Mary and Lena. Whereas Jacobi and Jonathan treated the Erudite with scorn and passed on looks of distaste whenever one was near.

Several weeks into my initiation me and Lena where verbally assaulted in the street by some Erudite initiates, Caleb among them. Me and Lena exchanged incredulous looks then hurried along the road, we were set to help Mary with the Factionless distribution. As we arrived at the Factionless distribution center we were mobbed by Factionless begging for food, we each removed our bags of food at the same time and distributed those to the Factionless nearest.

Me and Lena helped out Mary for around two hours before we were called back to our respected duties."Well, good luck then" Lena says, looking at the clock on the wall. I smile and reply ''Make sure a coconut doesn't fall on your head'' she laughs softly and shakes her head."They don't grow coconuts silly!" she shook her head with mirth. Some of the Abnegation elders looked at us with dissaproving eyes and we stopped and bowed our heads. The moment they were out of view we collapsed into laughter.

As we boarded the mini bus the driver gave us a message '"Ms. Black you have been instructed to

arrive at the Dauntless compound immediatly" me and Lena exchanged a look that had only a hint of curiosity. I nodded and jumped off a corner away from the compound ''I wouldn't wish to be a burdance" I tell the driver and he nods. I walk briskly towards the compound, their seem to be no guards today.

As I arrive it seems as if a full party is in the making, my ears hurt with the noise and vibrations. I quickly walk towards the nurse's office and knock on her door.


End file.
